THE Country Basketball League (CBL) gets underway this weekend with Hamilton travelling south to take on the Coasters in Portland tomorrow.

The Hurricanes have a few new additions to the squad, with Craig Jackson, Daniel Spillman and Daniel Schild all making their CBL debuts in the opening round.

Hurricanes coach, Dean Le Roy said there were mixed feelings going into round one.

“I think the ones that have been there before are fine, but the new ones are a bit nervous, a lot of questions being asked,” he said.

“I think there is mixed emotions going into it, but it’s the same as last year, there are no massive expectations.”

Hamilton will take a list of 10 into the clash, with the early season contests an unknown for each team with changes to the squad and how teams set up on the court.

Le Roy said the team will learn plenty from the game, with the Hurricanes set to play Portland again later in the season, which has been condensed from four months to two and a half and will be finished before Christmas.

“We don’t know what to expect from them, we get Portland twice, so the message is our offensive set up and what we want to run is something they won’t know, so we just want to catch them by surprise,” he said.

“Last year we had Sam Brewer and he was awesome, so that responsible will fall to Joel (Le Roy) and Wade (Macdonald) as captain and vice-captain (respectively).

“The general message on Sunday will be to stick to what we’re learning and lay good foundations.”

Starting the season with a road trip will also take the pressure off the group, according to Le Roy.

“I think it will for the new ones, playing in front of your mates and family and 300 people adds to that pressure,” he said.

“Travelling away, I’ve said we need to create our own environment, because some teams only get 50 or so people to games, so hopefully that will ease the nerves.”

Josh Miller will be backing up from last year, where he finished sixth on the list for points scored, putting up 252 from 16 games.

He will no doubt play an important role for the Hurricanes once again, but it may be harder for him with increased attention expected from other teams.

“Any good coach would scout the other teams,” Le Roy said.

“I think he would be top of the list, but we have other players who can fly under the radar, so if Josh gets that defensive attention or tagger, that role will be more in terms of getting his teammates open and our guys will have to work harder to get him open.

“He has improved massively, he mas a much bigger skill set this season after playing Big V.”

Tip-off at Portland Basketball Stadium is scheduled for 3pm